King's Son Praises Private School Scholarship Program -- 05/14/1999

King's Son Praises Private School Scholarship Program

14 May, 1999

By Justin Torres
CNS Senior Staff Writer

Washington, D.C. (CNS) – Martin Luther King, III, son of the famed civil rights leader and head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), addressed a group of Washington, D.C., middle and high school students who have attended private and charter schools through a program that has attracted nationwide attention.

The Washington Scholarship Fund (WSF), established in 1993 to provide private school alternatives to underprivileged students in the nation's capital, honored 70 graduates from schools around the city in a ceremony at Nativity Catholic Academy, a private school with a largely minority student body. King addressed the graduates as keynote speaker.

The Scholarship Fund has garnered national attention because of its heavy-hitter financial backing–supporters include leveraged buyout magnate Theodore Forstmann, Wal-Mart heir John Walton, Fidelity Management's Peter S. Lynch, and America Online founder James Kimsey–and its success in moving students from a public school system once described by the Washington Post as "a well-financed failure."

Presently, 1,200 children–about 10 percent of the private school students in the District of Columbia–receive an average scholarship of $1,250 per year to attend the private or religious school of their choice. WSF president Patrick Purtill told CNS that more than 80 percent of scholarship recipients elect to attend religious schools.

King told students that "the word of the day is 'help,'" which he said stood for home, education, love, and prayer–"four words," he said, "that can create success in our lives."

Prayer, he added, is the most important of the four. "I'll tell you something," said King to the crowd of students, teachers, and parents, "prayer can do things. When we took the prayer out of our schools, the guns moved in."

Purtill called King and his father, the slain civil rights activist, "more than just leaders–they're statesman . . . who recall us to the noblest principles of the founding of America."

Students and parents praised WSF for its work in D.C. schools.

"They gave me the chance to go a good school that my grandma normally couldn't afford," Francisco Blassingame, an eighth grade graduate who attends St. Thomas More elementary school, told CNS. Blassingame will attend Archbishop Carroll high school on a WSF scholarship next fall.

"I'd like to thank my Mom and the Washington Scholarship Fund for providing me with this great education," said Erika Burnett, and eighth grader who spoke at the graduation. "This room may be full of the mayors, presidents, doctors, lawyers, and educators of tomorrow. The education we've received has made it possible."

Laurette Moore, grandmother of graduate DeAngelo Redmond, called the Fund "a magnificent program . . . these kids get a wonderful education."

Moore told CNS she hoped the Fund could be extended to include more students, saying, "Every child should have this opportunity."

Visit Washington Scholarship Fund web site

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